A women with her hands pulling at her hair, sitting in front of a window with a laptop in front of her. The text on the image reads Gas Stove Creative Boutique Marketing. The algorithm does not hate you! You are just doing these 3 things that kill your exposure.

As we all know, utilizing social media is a major component of digital marketing and getting in front of our ideal clients. However, sometimes it can feel like your efforts are wasted because you’re not going viral and you feel like no one is seeing your posts, let alone the people who are actually going to buy from you.

I promise, the algorithm doesn’t hate you, you’re just likely doing these 3 things that are killing your exposure. ⬇️

1. Your hashtags aren’t relevant to your post

As you probably know, there have been many updates to the Instagram app, and one of them is that Instagram is locking down the relevancy of your hashtags to posts. They want us to see the MOST relevant content (which is a good thing!) but that does mean the end of batching and reusing hashtags. 

If you’re adding hashtags to your content you need to make sure every single one of them directly pertains to the content within your post.

2. You’re posting and ghosting

The algorithm thrives on engagement, the more comments, shares, saves, and likes – the better. When you post your finely crafted content you don’t want to just post and log off. To get that post seen by as many people as possible you want to stay on the app for at least 10 minutes right after posting and be actively engaging with other accounts. Especially if people are commenting and liking, you want to be commenting and liking right back.

3. You’re not being “social” on social media

To piggyback off the previous point, social media is about connecting, and if you’re only using it to promote yourself the algorithm simply isn’t going to favor you. If you want to increase your reach on social you should be spending 10-15 minutes a day commenting, sharing, and replying to people’s posts. This will help get your name out there and it will signal to the platform (Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, etc.) that you’re an active user.

I promise, the algorithm doesn’t hate you, and your content is likely really good! It’s just a matter of making these social platforms work in your favor.